A PANICKED Home Office has drafted a retired High Court judge for an independent inquiry over its handling of child sex abuse allegations.

Home Secretary Theresa May said yesterday her Permanent Secretary Mark Sedwill had appointed cross-bench peer Baroness Butler-Sloss to investigate her department’s missing files and mounting questions stemming from an eyes-only report filed last year.

Mr Sedwill is to appear before MPs on the home affairs select committee in order to defend the initial review and his department’s response.

The 2013 report, commissioned after a string of recently deceased high-profile figures including TV presenter Jimmy Savile and Lib Dem MP Cyril Smith were outed as serial child abusers, has not been released to the public.

But it is understood the HMRC officer charged with the investigation found around 114 relevant files missing, presumed “destroyed, missing or not found.”

The missing papers are said to span a period of 20 years and include a dossier from the late MP Geoffrey Dickens said to name the high-profile individuals of an paedophile ring active in alleged abuse at south-west London’s Elm Guest House.

THE two inquiries into child sex abuse announced by the Home Secretary are already raising more questions than they are likely to answer. Without having to doubt Theresa May’s sincerity or the integrity of Home Office officials or investigators, her statement to MPs reflected some of the complacency that has been one of the hallmarks of the Establishment’s approach to these matters over decades: here.